Immigrant removals continue slide under Trump, new data show
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Deported individuals from the U.S. arrive on a flight at Simon Bolivar International Airport (CCS) in Venezuela on March 24. Deportation flights from the U.S. resumed after an agreement was reached between the two governments. Photo: Bloomberg via Getty images
The Trump administration's pace of removing immigrants from the U.S. continues to lag behind Joe Biden's pace last year, even as detentions have jumped under President Trump, new numbers show.
Driving the news: The pace of removals under Trump is actually slowing compared to his first two weeks in office, despite several high-profile raids and the targeting of foreign students as part of a sweeping immigration crackdown,
- The declining rate of removals is partly the result of dramatically fewer people crossing the border illegally, a sign that Trump's stepped-up enforcement there is working as intended and deterring would-be crossers.
- But several other factors are complicating Trump's push to expand "fast-track" deportations. Among them: Civil liberties groups are challenging rapid deportations in court, and the administration fired 29 immigration judges and senior staffers.
- The decrease in removals came before the administration sent 238 alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador, leading immigrant rights groups to claim it was a stunt partly aimed at boosting the removal numbers.
By the numbers: In Trump's first full six weeks in office, the administration removed 27,772 immigrants from the U.S., according to data from the ICE detention management database and collected by the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
- That's a daily average of 661 removals — an 11% decrease from the daily average of 742 under President Biden last fiscal year.
- From Jan. 26 to Feb. 8, the Trump administration removed an average of 693 immigrants daily, a 6.5% decline from Biden's last days in office.
Zoom in: TRAC said in a report released last week that the pace is falling despite the Trump administration deploying staff from other agencies to assist in enforcement activities.
- "President Trump's removal record is growing worse with time rather than improving," TRAC said.
On the other hand: Compared to this time last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports detaining more people in more detention facilities across the U.S., according to another TRAC analysis.
- As of March 23, ICE had 47,892 people in custody.
- That's a 30% increase in a year, pointing to increased immigration enforcement in the nation's interior by Trump's administration.
The White House declined to comment on the new data.
- White House officials previously have said the public should examine different numbers to assess the Trump administration's progress on immigration enforcement.
- They've pointed to removals (deportations and removals of undocumented immigrants), administrative returns (migrants who withdraw applications at ports of entry or crew members on ships who arrive without visas) and enforcement returns (migrants crossing the border who ICE returns, the Border Patrol or another agency).
The bottom line: Trump's crackdown has escalated the number of immigrants in detention and those with cases tied up in courts, but hasn't boosted the pace of removals.
